Sweater Weather: Frigid Frost
by Green Gallant
Summary: Hockey AU. Richard Grayson is a 24 year old rising star that's just been drafted into the NHL. However his expectations aren't what he imaged them to be. Signing with an inexperienced and untested expansion team of rookies that are being coached by one Slade Wilson, Richard isn't quite sure waht he had gotten himself into. Will he have what it takes to survive his first season?


_Author's Note: Hey I'm back with another story I hope its to your liking. When I was in junior high and high school I was an NHL fan. Unfortunatly I was never really tied down to one hockey team growing up and probably rooted for at least half the teams at one point or another but I was especially fond of three teams in particular the San Jose Sharks, the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs. Anyway I've wanted to do another sports related fic for a while and this is what poppped into my mind. I hope you guys like it._

**_Sweater Weather: Frigid Frost_**

In the last few years the NHL has experienced a recent upsurge in popularity, with more fans demanding more local teams the NHL has commissioned an expansion of several new franchises to meet the new fanbase and to better compete against the other three major professional leagues in the United States. With the prospect of several long defunct franchises being reinstated, a number of cities battle for the honor of a new professional team. Others only had one such team taken away from them years prior when a number of NHL teams relocated elsewhere, some being moved across borders and across the country. And the need to right these wrongs grew louder as the league listened in and decided to revive several ancillary team names as per the wishes of thier respective fanbases. And of the league's 30 teams, five new ones were added marking the first major expansion since 1967

Many of which were already familar to fans as part of the National Hockey League's illustrious history, names steeped in pathos that hadn't been been used for decades. Of these teams the five new franchises are thus. In the Northeast Division fans were thrilled to see the return of the Hartford Whalers to the state of Connecticut, while in the Midwest, St. Louis would soon find an in-state rival with the revived Kansas City Scouts. While down south a new Thrashers team was given back to Atlanta after the original team moved up north and became the new Winnipeg Jets. And out west several new teams were added to the NHL's lineup reviving the long defunct California Golden Seals into the more familar moniker the Oakland Seals. And finally located just a couple hundred miles up north of the San Francisco Bay Area the league comissioned the birth of a brand new team that was unrelated to any prior iteration of an existing team. To close the Great Northern Gap in the American northwest the League issued a new franchise to Portland creating the 35th team now known as the Oregon Beavers. And while the above mentioned teams had history and tradition behind the name, the Beavers were the odd team out. A neophyte organization that hadn't even played its first game yet and would likely be comprised of mostly young and inexperienced players. As a result of the five new teams creation an expansion draft was announced before the start of the season to fill out the new team rosters.

It was a spectacular event covered by all the major sports networks as it was the first expansion draft since the Original Six doubled in size in 1967. As an all new generation of players would be admitted into the league and start thier professional careers in a matter of hours. Amongst these new recruits sat 24 year old Richard Grayson, one of the highest ranking scorers in the minor league and a first round draft pick. He waited in anticipation in a black suit and red tie wondering which team will call his name with several cameras aimed at him to capture his reaction.

On stage a man in a gray suit with black hair and glasses stood behind a glass podium with the NHL shield on the front, flanked by two other men along with an assembly of men and women standing infront large blue curtain with the Expansion Draft logo and all the nations' flags displayed on a wooden poles in the background as the league's commissioner stood said podium as he opened a large white envelop and read it aloud.

"The first round pick of the 2014 NHL Expansion Draft goes to..." the commissioner said as cameras zoomed in on Rich and several other players in the running.

"Richard Grayson of the West Coast Hockey League's San Francisco Surge." he said as Richard stood up to applause as colleuges, friends and family members hugged him giving him congradulatory pats on the back as he walked up to the stage.

As Richard ascended the broad five step staircase up to the stage a graphic appeared on the bottom half of the screen showcasing his picture, name and stats as one of the networks covered the event. Coming up to the stage he shook the commissioner's hand who remained behind the podium along with those standing beside him as they displayed the back of his new team jersey that was a deep green with Grayson 24 in white lettering was held up for the audience to see. Richard then turned the jersey around slipping it over his suit showcasing a teal inverted triangle with a black circle and a large brown beaver displayed in side profile emblazoned across the front with tiny black and gold shoulder stripes and a team hat was placed on him by one of the attendants as the audience applauded.

In truth Richard was a little bit mortified at his team's announcement. And was hoping to be chosen by a team with more prominance like Kansas City or Oakland. Still there was a chance he could be traded to another organization, maybe even one that's better established like Chicago, New York or Boston. As the draft continued he saw more of his colleuges go to the other expansion teams and thier rosters started to grow before his very eyes while a few more would join his own team the Oregon Beavers. As he and sports speculators had feared the ranks would be filled by an uniniatied rookie team. All of whom were around his age of younger some of them only 19, while an older more grizzled vetran stood behind them with arms folded across his chest in attention to the new team. Richard hazzarded a glance at the older man standing behind him who had short white swept back hair and a moustache goatee. The man in question was Slade Wilson a twenty-five year vetran of the league who had been brought on as the new head coach. Known as 'Old Blood & Guts' Slade was one of the roughest men to ever play the game. And had a repuation so fierce he was known by another name to fans and players alike as 'The Terminator' for his take no prisoners style of play when he was in uniform. Richard had heard of this man from his childhood and there had been plenty of sports reels about how vicious he was on the ice, slamming players into plexiglass and beating guys' heads in at the sligthest provocation made the young player a little wary to be around.

A few days later the team would have thier first on ice training session at the new TD Waterhouse Colleseium in Portland which locals have started calling The Dam to the team's chagrin as they stood on thier home ice as Coach Slade stood before them in a black jacket with a dark green shirt on his heart was a small patch of the team logo with 'Oregon Beavers Hockey' underneath and jeans with his hands behind his back. It was seven am on a monday morning as the coach addressed his team.

"Good morning gentlemen and welcome to your first day of practice in the NHL. I'm sure that many of you are eager to get to work so I'll be brief. My name is Slade Wilson, I will be your head coach from here on out. I expect nothing but excellence from my players. Since this is our first year as a franchise we have a long road ahead of us, I have also noticed that many of you are amature players which means that the journey will be even longer as a team. But I believe through hard work and dedication we can morph this organization into one of the finest teams in hockey. But you must be willing to work towards it, right now the odds are against us. Like most expansion teams we are not expected to go that far in our inaugural year, and might not even win a game this season. But I am hopeful that we will defy those expectations. Players sound off." he told them.

The players each gave thier name and position to thier coach until it fell on Rich who was standing third from the left in front of Coach Wilson.

"Richard Grayson, Captain." he stated. Slade's eye fell on the young rookie.

"Captain?" he asked.

"Yes sir." he replied. Slade shook his head sternly.

"No." he said as he skated past. Rich rasied and eyebrow and turned towards him.

"No?" he asked leaning just out of line.

"You haven't earned it yet. Not until I say so." he said before turning to face his team.

"You will all earn your letter and position on this team, no exceptions. Okay boys, show me what you got." he said.

A short time later the players had broken down into two groups behind center ice as one half of the team were doing slapshots against the goalie demenstarting thier profenciency as Slade stood off to one end watching his players. There were some strong hits as each player went through the line while the goalie defended his net as best he could. One puck launched through the air as the goalie caught it in the crease of his right glove above the corner of the net, while the next one came up behind him and slapped the puck as hard as he could and was deflected by the stick standing straight up between the goalie's leg pads. Slade nodded as he followed the movements of his players and seemed to be impressed with what he had seen so far. A third player came up and slapped the puck as hard as possible striking the goalie's facemask near his left eye. Slade took notice as the goalie shook his head and didn't seem any worse for the wear as he got back into position as the coach narrowed his eye at the player who hit him.

"Hathaway the idea is to get it past the goalie, not have him swallow the thing." Slade admonished.

"You all right?" he asked the goalie who signaled he was all right.

The rest of the morning the team practiced going over various drills while the team doctor made sure thier lead goaltender was all right shining a light into his eyes clearing him for practice a few minutes later. While the teammate that hit him earlier was forced to do laps around the rink as the others did more rigerous training and then later was found sitting in the penalty box while the rest of his team did laps. In the later hours the team scrimmaged dividing them up into two sides while the offending player remained in the penalty box bored out of his mind. By 11am four hours had passed and the team was finally given a brief reprieve by Coach Wilson as the majority of them showered and changed into thier street clothes to grab a late breakfast/early lunch. Inside the locker room the players chatted amongst themselves as they got dressed with Richard being on the first ones out the door. And though he didn't have much time to interact with his new team he thought it better that he try to bond with some of them if he was going to spend his first season here in Portland. Heading down to a local restaraunt he grabbed a handful of the guys he befriended and sought to know his new teammates a little better.

Making thier way inside a little cafe just down the street from the arena the guys settled in by a window booth as a medium sized flat screen tv sat over the bar in the upper right corner where patrons sat. As they conversed in small talk the 'Sportscenter' theme played overhead as Rich turned his shoulder and saw the series' logo appeared on screen as the program aired showing an African American desk anchor alongside his Caucasian cohost.

"Good morning and welcome to Sportscenter, I'm Stewart Scott along with Rich Eisen. At the top of the hour is the same thing everyone else has been talking about the NHL Expansion Draft. In the past twelve months the league has iniated the largest expansion of any of the Big Four organizations in over 50 years. The sport is now more popular than ever but the question remains is this a good long term plan for the NHL?" the newscaster asked before switching over to his co-anchor.

"Stewart, the NHL has recently revived the names of four franchise teams that dried up and moved out years ago. These four teams are the Oakland Seals, Hartford Whalers, Kansas City Scouts and Atlanta Thrashers. The reason why they moved out was because of financial difficulties with Oakland having been the largest offender, a team that could never draw in a large enough crowd in the 60s and 70s. While the Scouts would only spend a few years in Kansas City before making the move to Cleveland and becoming the Barons before that team folded. While the Whalers left Hartford in 1996 to become the Carolina Hurricanes, and more recently the Atlanta Thrashers an expansion team established in '99 to replace the Calagary Flames when the team relocated in 1980 have now lost a second hockey team this time to Winnipeg. It seems as though Atlanta can't catch a break. And is the third time a charm for the beleagered city?" Rich Eisen asked.

"Despite these losses the legacies of the forgotten franchises have loomed large over the cities they left behind. And have even carried on thier namesakes in a few minor league teams that would try to pick up where they left off, all of which were short lived at best. " Rich added before turning to Stewart Scott.

"Speaking of hockey the Northwest will be a little cozier now with the Vancouver Canucks getting some new neighbors. The expansion Oregon Beavers will be putting down roots in Portland this season with some fresh blood on the ice. The new team is comprised of mostly rookies and will coached by...get this! Slade 'The Terminator' Wilson. One of the nastiest defensivemen to play the game in the last 25 years. We caught up with Slade to see what he thinks about the new team he'll be coaching this fall." Stewart said as the Beavers' logo flashed across the screen showing Slade's interview.

The grizzled old hockey player muttered something that was nearly incoherient into the microphone as he sat in his office with the team logo displayed prominantly behind his right shoulder in the background.

"I think its pretty obvious that we have a long road ahead of us, but I have faith that these boys will shape up and make this team and the city of Portland proud when they hit the ice later this week." he said in a low voice.

"Was Slade complementing us?" one of Rich's teammates asked.

"I think so but I couldn't really hear him. Kind of sounds like it." Richard admitted sitting across from him.

Across the league the rest of the teams continued thier morning and afternoon practice as we check in on the Class of 2014 recruits. At the Keystone Arena in Kansas City rookie defensiveman Wally West took to the ice checking his opponets into the glass while demonstarting his speed and tenacity in a yellow, red and blue Scouts uniform. Up north in Minneapolis the neophyte Garfield Logan tried to keep up with his fellow defensivemen in the Minnesota Wild while his father and team owner Dr. Mark Logan looked on from the seats. The uniforms for the Wild were dark green with an outline of a cat's head with forestry scenery mountains and a river filling in the cat's image as thier logo. It was move that several of his teammates questioned as Gar was considerably shorter than most players but still had a relatively strong physique (he'd have to if he wanted to survive in this sport). Despite his short statue and would make up for this by getting shots past his teammates into the net as his dad smiled.

Several of his players could be heard saying 'good job/good shot' to the new athelete but that did little to quell the resentment or vitrol more experienced players had for the owner's son. It was a thing Gar was all too aware of as several have roughed him up both on and off the ice when the owner's back was turned.

Down in Sunrise, Florida team owner Alec Holland watched as his Florida Panthers did thier morning and afternoon drills. A noted philanthropist towards enviromental research, and is also the propriator of the state's leading agro-science corporation Holland Industries that is known by thier slogan as 'The Greenest Name In Business'. Holland was one of the richest men in the state having recently purchased the team to add to his portfolio. His star prospect for the season was 23 year old Allen Crock, son of the legendary Crusher Crock, an unassailable defensiveman that used to give Slade Wilson a run for his money. Up in the stands were his younger sisters 20 year old Jade Nyguen, and 19 year old Artemis Crock along with thier mother a paraplegic Paula Nguyen and his father. While down on the ice thier son wore a bright red jersey with black shoulders and a golden leopard springing forth on his chest. His father watched as he checked one of his teammates into the glass, his dad however noted he wasn't hitting hard enough.

"Come on you can hit harder than that. Let's see some hustle!" he said standing up and clapping his hands. His son glanced up at his father and tried to ignore him as best he could skating to the far side of the rink so he wouldn't have to hear him.

He sat down as his wife gave him a wary sideways glance from her chair while further down her daughters did thier best to ignore thier over competitive father. Artemis shook her head slightly while her older sister Jade updated her facebook status on her smartphone.

"Why does he have to come along?" Artemis muttered.

"Becuase he's the testostrone overlord trying to relive his glory days through his son." Jade sniped without looking up.

"He's embarrassing us." she murmured.

"He doesn't care. Nothing's ever good enough for daddy." her older sister replied sarcastically as thier brother continued to practice while Crusher continued to berate his son for not playing hard enough.

It was an off-kilter behavior that didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the team least of all thier owner Mr. Holland as the industralist looked over his shoulder at the brash retired hockey player in the stands. Crusher had gone ten seasons with the Buffalo Sabers and was known to be one of the gnarliest men to hit the ice, and had a reputation as fierce as his fellow lineman Slade Wilson who could put players in the hospital any day of the week. Checking, high sticking, flipping, bare knuckle brawls and throwing guys into the goal post, defenstrating through plexiglass he'd done it all. Pound for pound he was one of the toughest S.O.B.s to ever play the game in the 90s, with fans and analysists declaring him one of the biggest bastards to ever lace up skates. Needless to say this wasn't going to be a pretty season with him in the stands.

"Come on I want to see some blood on the ice and plexiglass!" he yelled to his son as he clapped cheering him on. Mr. Holland gave the legend a wary look as he stood on the bottom row of the stands...oh yeah this is going to be a long season.

For the rest of the week Slade put the team through its paces making sure they were in optimal condition for Friday night's opening game. Having to do two a day practice regiments in the morning and afternoon the team he noted had improved a little bit in the short time they had to the home opener, and even noticed that some local fans had started coming into the stadium to watch the new team practice. It was a sight that warmed Slade's heart a little bit as the old coach smirked a tiny bit as he drilled his players. It seems as though the fans had a postive effect on Rich and the others who at least knew that thier suffering wasn't without reward, while across the nation other stadiums would start to fill as they watched thier home teams go through similar drills. They were small in number no matter the location, some of them diehard fans while others were curious onlookers having just got off school or work.. With the fans support for the team slowly growing the week seemed to fly by as they did thier two a day training sessions as more people started to watch them play. On Tuesday two more people had joined the stands and by late Wednesday morning three more were in the stands and finally by Thursday afternoon thier attendance size had doubled. And finally friday night had arrived as fans filled The Dam while in the locker room the team was in high spirits as they were about to play thier inaugural game as Slade gave them a rousing speech as the team sprang out thier seats and headed upstairs where anxious fans awaited them.

_Author's Note: All right so what'd you think? Since its obvious this story is AU I should also note that it takes place in an alternate universe where there are more NHL teams than in real life. Currently there are 30 teams total all of the 'expansion teams' are fictional and do not currently exist at this time. The Winnipeg Jets though are totally real and the Atlanta Thrashers did in fact move there last season which means that Atlanta doesn't have an NHL team at the time of this printing. I decided to go with a fictional expansion team so as to give me a neutral team to work with, in a way its evocative of alot of sports movies that also feature a fictional team within a real life sports league like the NFL._

_I decided to try this as something different. Just like in the show you can expect cameos from the show as well as from the wider DC Universe, and tried to place characters in relation to a team that would refrence thier background in some way. Such as Kansas City is probably where Keystone/Central City is located in the show and comics, and Alec Holland the owner of the Florida Panthers in this fic is the human alter ego of DC Comics character the Swamp Thing in case you were wondering why Wally was there. Anyway that's all for now, let me know what you think of it!_

_Please review generously,_

_The Green Gallant_


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